•  
  •  
 

St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

185

Document Type

Article

Abstract

I would like to start with a little story. This actually happened during my employment at the Dade County Public Defender's office, when I was in juvenile court. There was this very bright young man who, having been arrested for stealing bicycles, was in detention. He had figured out an ingenious way to steal bicycles. He would go into the bicycle section in department stores, get a bicycle, and start riding it around. An employee would invariably say, "Oh, you can't ride that bicycle in here. Take it out," and would escort him to the door with the bicycle. He was a very smart young fellow, about fourteen or fifteen years old. Seeing his genius, a couple of people told him one day, "You have to stop doing this kind of thing." They asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and he said, "Well, you know for a long time I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but you have to go to school too long for that. I think I just want to be a public defender." This story reflects the image of public defenders in this society as people who, at best, are not good enough to be "real lawyers"' and, at worst, are nothing more than mere pawns of the criminal justice system Throughout my career, I have found that three interrelated factors produce this image. One factor is the caseload in the public defender's office, which tempts the typical public defender to be perfunctory in dealing with his clients. The second is the low priority that our society places on resources for public defenders. The third factor is the advantage accorded the prosecution in terms of resources, alliances with judges and legislators, and the prosecution-oriented developments in the law itself. I will address these issues in turn.

Download

Share

COinS